Penuel

Penuel (Biblical Hebrew: פְּנוּאֵל, romanized: Pənuʾēl) is a place described in the Hebrew Bible as being not far from Sukkot on the east of the Jordan River, south of the Zarqa in Jordan.

Depiction of Jacob wrestling with the angel at Penuel by Eugène Delacroix.

Penuel is mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the site of Jacob's struggle with the angel. In 1 Kings, it is mentioned as a capital for Jeroboam, the first king of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), which he fortified.

Biblical narrative

According to the Biblical narrative, the site was named Peniel ("Face of God") by Jacob:

It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.

— Gen. 32:30 NIV

Here Jacob wrestled with El "till the break of day." El changed Jacob's name to "Israel" in Genesis 32:28, explained as "he who strives with God",^[1] (literally, "God strives").

Penuel is later mentioned in the Book of Judges. The men of this place refused to give bread to Gideon and his three hundred men when they were in pursuit of the Midianites in Judges 8:1-21. On his return, Gideon tore down the tower there and killed all the men of the city.

According to the Bible, Jeroboam, King of Israel-Samaria, established his capital in Shechem. A short time later, he left Shechem and fortified Penuel, declaring it as his new capital in 1 Kings 12:25. He and his son, Nadab, ruled there until Baasha seized the throne in 909 BCE and moved the capital to Tirzah in 1 Kings 15:25-34. In the scriptures, it is identified as both a site for the worship of El and Yahweh.^[2]

Some scholars consider that the material of Genesis 32–35, including the account of Jacob being renamed Israel at Penuel, may be a later addition that introduces a new power structure centered around the establishment of sacral places in the North (Penuel, Shechem and Bethel).^[3]

Identification

Up until 1970, biblical scholars identified Penuel with the twin peaks of Tulul adh-Dhahab in modern-day Jordan. Based on the account given in Genesis, scholars believed Penuel to be the location of a sacred sanctuary,^[4] and presumed that there must have been a temple from Iron Age I or earlier on one of the peaks.^[5] Since such a structure has not been found, this identification was questioned.

Tulul adh-Dhahab's Tell edh-Dhahab el-Sharqi a proposed location for ancient Penuel

Contemporary Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein suggested to see the twin peaks as two distinct sites that probably featured distinct names during antiquity. He suggested identifying the western, larger, Tell el-Dhahab al-Gharbi with Mahanaim and the eastern one, Tell edh-Dhahab el-Sharqi, with Penuel.^[6]

See also

• Vayishlach, the Torah reading describing the events at Penuel